Discipline sets boys on the path to Rugby

When former prison governor Ray Lewis first met Marcus Kerr and Charles Ogunkeyede they were facing expulsion.

Now, after more than three years of old-fashioned discipline, he has helped to set the 13-year-olds on the path to the playing fields once graced by William Webb Ellis.

Marcus, who currently attends the same school as Adam Regis, the 15-year-old fatally stabbed earlier this month, and Charles have won £24,000-a-year bursaries to board at Rugby School.

Their behaviour was turned around by staff at the Eastside Young Leaders' Academy in Upton Park, which runs an after-school programme for bright but potentially disruptive black boys. Mr Lewis set up the academy five years ago after he became frustrated at seeing so many black men end up behind bars. Its ethos of producing "young leaders" has won the attention of Tory leader David Cameron.

It is a huge change for the boys since they joined the academy, according to Mr Lewis.

"These boys were exceptionally disruptive and very poorly behaved, wantonly and deliberately disobedient," said Mr Lewis. "We had to embark on a very rigorous support programme causing them to reflect on their behaviour. These were boys who were candidates for exclusion."

Charles, who lives in Forest Gate with his Nigerian parents and brother and sister, told The Sunday Telegraph he feared people at Rugby might be "stuck up" but were in fact "really friendly".

Marcus, who lives in Beckton with his mother and three sisters, said he was aware of the responsibility.

"If I mess it up, it doesn't just affect me, I mess it up for all the boys that are coming up behind me," he said.